Film: Reclaim housing as a human right, not a commodity

The increasing cost of housing and the lack of homes for ordinary people is happening because the wishes of global capital are serviced over and above the needs of the many.

Push is a new documentary film which examines housing as a financial product, an investment of choice for corporate finance, a place to park money, and asks what can be done about it.

As Architects for Social Housing have observed: “Building more homes does not push house and rental prices down. While the law of supply and demand describes competitive markets responding to human needs, London’s financialised housing market, flooded by global capital, is driven by profit margins. Building more properties for home ownership, Buy to Let and capital investment will only push house and rental prices up.”

But it is not just in London, it is happening in cities across the world. A new documentary film explores the financialisation of housing — property as an increasingly liquid asset — the investment of choice for corporate finance, and asks what can be done about it.